Publication of the great Cambridge Greek Lexicon - Life Fellow Professor James Diggle

We are delighted to announce the publication of The Cambridge Greek Lexicon written by Editor-in-Chief and Queens' Life Fellow Professor James Diggle along with an editorial team based in the Faculty of Classics. The Cambridge Greek Lexicon covers the most widely read ancient literary texts, from Homer to the Hellenistic poets, the later historians, and the New Testament Gospels and Acts of the Apostles.

In recent times generous donors to The James Diggle Fund in Classics raised more than £100,000 to endow the Fund and support Classics at Queens’ in perpetuity. Courtesy of the The James Diggle Fund in Classics, all of the Queens' Classics students will receive a copy of The Cambridge Greek Lexicon.

Professor James Diggle says, 'Samuel Johnson described the lexicographer as 'a harmless drudge'. We have drudged for twenty years to create this Lexicon. But I hope, and believe, that we have created something which will be of lasting service to students, and in which the College may take some pride.'

Dr David Butterfield, Director of Studies in Classics at Queens', said "The scholarly achievement of the Cambridge Greek Lexicon is nothing short of titanic, and James's own contribution nothing short of heroic. There's no doubt that it is the most important book to come out from the Queens' Classics stable for half a millennium, that is since Desiderius Erasmus worked up his Greek New Testament here in the 1510s. While the Cambridge Greek Lexicon is unlikely to bring about societal change on quite the same scale as the Reformation, it is a cause for immense pride and joy for all those who have been associated with Queens' over the sixty years that James has been. In fact, since James's knowledge of Greek was necessarily honed and tested by the linguistically innovative prose and verse compositions of his students over this long period, perhaps all Queens' Classicists can claim the very smallest of roles in the long gestation of so brilliant a book by so brilliant a member of so brilliant a team."

On Thursday 6 May 2021 the Faculty of Classics hosted a Zoom webinar to celebrate this significant milestone. Professor Diggle shared some of the background and highlights of this fascinating project.

To watch a recording of the seminar, see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JlJqD3DTTg

See the news story on the Classics Faculty webpage for more information about the event and further details of the Cambridge Greek Lexicon project, including a video about this major project: https://www.classics.cam.ac.uk/news/publication-cambridge-greek-lexicon